Definitely Maybe is the debut album by the English rock band Oasis, released in August
1994. It was an immediate commercial and critical success in the UK, having followed on the
heels of singles "Supersonic", "Shakermaker" and "Live Forever".
Definitely Maybe went straight to number one in the UK Albums Charts on initial release.
It was the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK when it was released and
went on to be certified 7x Platinum by the BPI. Definitely Maybe marked the beginning
of Oasis' success in America, selling over one million copies there, despite only peaking
at 58 on the Billboard 200. The album went on to sell over eight million copies worldwide
and brought widespread critical acclaim. The album, along with Blur's Parklife, helped
to spur a revitalisation in British pop music in the mid nineties and was embraced by critics
for its optimistic themes and supposed rebuttal of the downtrodden fatalism evident in the
dominant grunge music of the time. It was a seminal record of the Britpop movement and
still appears in many 'best of' lists to this day. In June 2006, it was voted the greatest
album of all time in a poll conducted by the NME magazine.
Background Formerly called The Rain, Oasis formed in
1991. Originally consisting of Liam Gallagher, Paul Arthurs, Paul McGuigan, and Tony McCarroll,
the group was soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher. The elder Gallagher
insisted that if he were to join, the group would give him complete control and they would
work towards superstardom. Noel had been writing songs for years, and replaced the group's
repertoire with his compositions. Oasis signed to independent record label Creation
Records in 1993. The limited-edition 12" single "Columbia" was released in late 1993 as a
primer for the band for journalists and radio programmers. Unexpectedly, BBC Radio 1 picked
up the single and played it 19 times in the fortnight after its release, surprising for
a record not available in stores. The band's first commercial single "Supersonic" was released
on 11 April 1994. The following week it debuted at number 31 on the British singles chart.
The single was followed by "Shakermaker" in June 1994, which debuted at number 11 and
earned the group an appearance on Top of the Pops.
Recording Oasis booked Monnow Valley Studio, near Monmouth,
at the start of 1994 to record their debut album. Their producer was Dave Batchelor,
who Noel Gallagher knew from his days working as a roadie for the Inspiral Carpets. The
sessions were unsatisfactory. "It wasn't happening," Arthurs recalled. "He was the wrong person
for the job ... We'd play in this great big room, buzzing to be in this studio, playing
like we always played. He'd say, 'Come in and have a listen.' And we'd be like, 'That
doesn't sound like it sounded in that room. What's that?' It was thin. Weak. Too clean."
The sessions at Monnow Valley were costing £800 a day. As the sessions proved increasingly
fruitless, the group began to panic. Arthurs said, "Noel was frantically on the phone to
the management, going, 'This ain't working.' For it not to be happening was a bit frightening."
Batchelor was let go, and Gallagher tried to make use of the music already recorded
by taking the tapes to a number of London studios. Tim Abbot of Creation Records said
while visiting the band in Chiswick, "McGee, Noel, me and various people had a great sesh,
and we listened to it over and over again. And all I could think was, 'It ain't got the
attack.' There was no immediacy." In February the group returned from an ill-fated
trip to Amsterdam and set about re-recording the album at Sawmills Studio in Cornwall.
This time the sessions were produced by Noel Gallagher and Mark Coyle. The group decided
the only way to replicate their live sound on record was to record together without soundproofing
between individual instruments. Over the tracks, Gallagher overdubbed numerous guitars. Arthurs
said, "That was Noel's favourite trick: get the drums, bass and rhythm guitar down, and
then he'd cane it. 'Less is more' didn't really work then."
The results were still deemed unsatisfactory, and there was little chance of another attempt
at recording the album. The recordings already made had to be used. In desperation, Creation's
Marcus Russell contacted engineer-turned-producer Owen Morris. "I just thought, 'They've messed
up here,'" Morris recalled after hearing the Sawmills recordings. "I guessed at that stage
Noel was completely fucked off. Marcus was like, 'You can do what you like – literally,
whatever you want." Among Morris's first tasks was to strip away the layers of guitar overdubs
Gallagher had added. Morris completed his final mix of the record on the bank holiday
weekend in May. Music journalist John Harris noted, "The miracle was that music that had
passed through so many hands sounded so dynamic: the guitar-heavy stew that Morris had inherited
had been remoulded into something positively pile-driving."
Release and reception The release of Definitely Maybe was preceded
by a third single, "Live Forever", which was released on 8 August 1994. "Live Forever"
was the group's first top ten single. The continuing success of Oasis partially allowed
Creation to ride out a period of financial straits. The label was still £2 million
in debt, so Tim Abbot was given only £60,000 to promote the upcoming album. Abbot tried
to determine how best to use his small budget. "I'd go back to the Midlands every couple
of weeks," Abbot said, "and people I knew would say, 'Oasis are great. This is what
we listen to.' And I'd be thinking, "Well, you lot don't buy singles. You don't read
the NME. You don't read Q. How do we get the people to like you?'" Abbot decided to place
ads in publications that had never been approached by Creation before, such as football magazines,
match programmes and UK dance music periodicals. Abbot's suspicions that Oasis would appeal
to these non-traditional audiences were confirmed when the dance music magazine Mixmag, which
usually ignored guitar-based music, gave Definitely Maybe a five-star review.
Definitely Maybe was finally released on 29 August 1994. The album sold 86,000 in its
first week. On 4 September the album debuted at number one on the British charts. It outsold
the second-highest album, by a factor of 50%. The first-week sales earned Definitely Maybe
the record of the fastest-selling debut album in British history. The album received almost
unanimous critical acclaim along with commercial success, with many critics and listeners welcoming
the album's fearless optimistic themes, particularly in an era of rock which was dominated by American
grunge which seemed at odds with the album, while also praising Noel Gallagher's songwriting
and melodic skills along with younger brother Liam's vocals. "Cigarettes & Alcohol" was
released as the fourth single from the album in October, peaking at number 7 UK, then a
career high for the band. Noel Gallagher said "Slide Away" was considered as a fifth single,
but he ultimately refused, arguing, "You can't have five [singles] off a debut album."
Cover art The photograph on the front cover of the album
was taken in guitarist Paul 'Bonehead' Arthurs' house. A picture of Rodney Marsh can be seen
on the cover and a television showing a scene from the film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
with actors Eli Wallach and Antonio Casale. A still of Gian Maria Volonté from the film
A Fistful of Dollars is visible on the television on the back cover. A poster of Burt Bacharach
is also shown on the lower-left-hand side of the cover. Some writers believe that Oasis
were trying to pay homage to Pink Floyd's Ummagumma by placing it there in the same
prominent position that Pink Floyd reserved for the soundtrack of Vincente Minnelli's
film Gigi. Legacy
The massive critical and commercial success of the album has left Definitely Maybe with
a legacy in which it has been cited as resurrecting interest in British guitar bands. It has since
frequently appeared in many 'greatest' polls. In 1997, Definitely Maybe was named the 14th
greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel
4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In Channel 4's '100 Greatest Albums' countdown in 2005,
the album was placed at number 6. In 2006, NME placed the album third in a list of the
greatest British albums ever, behind The Stone Roses' self-titled debut album and The Smiths'
The Queen Is Dead. In a 2006 British poll, run by NME and the book of British Hit Singles
and Albums, Definitely Maybe was voted the best album of all time with The Beatles' Sgt.
Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band finishing second and Revolver third. Q Magazine placed
it at number five on their greatest albums of all time list in 2006, and in that same
year NME hailed it as the greatest album of all time.
In a 2008 poll by Q and HMV in 2008, Definitely Maybe was ranked first on a list of the greatest
British albums of all time. The American edition of Rolling Stone ranks the album at number
78 in its list of "The 100 Best Albums of the Nineties". The German edition of Rolling
Stone ranks the album at number 156 in its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
On AcclaimedMusic.net, a website which calculates the most favorably reviewed songs and albums,
Definitely Maybe was listed as the 14th most critically acclaimed album of the 90s, as
well as the 105th most critically acclaimed album of all time. A study of the album by
the writer Alex Niven is forthcoming in Bloomsbury's 33⅓ series.
In July 2014, Guitar World ranked Definitely Maybe at number 19 in their "Superunknown:
50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list. Track listing
All songs written and composed by Noel Gallagher. Bonus tracks
Singles box set The Definitely Maybe box set was released
on 4 November 1996, featuring four discs of singles, including B-sides, and one disc of
interviews. The set charted at number 23 on the UK Singles Chart.
All songs written by Noel Gallagher, except "I Am the Walrus" by Lennon–McCartney.
2014 reissue As part of a promotional campaign entitled
"Chasing The Sun", the album – planned to also include the band's subsequent two albums
– was released on 19 May 2014. A deluxe edition featured the remastered original album
packaged with two additional discs of material. Additionally, a limited edition reproduction
of the band's original 1993 demo cassette was also made available to purchase.
DVD Definitely Maybe was released on DVD in September
2004 to mark the tenth anniversary of its original release. It went triple platinum
in the UK. The DVD featured an hour-long documentary about the recording of the album featuring
rare and contemporary interviews with the band and its associates. Also included was
the album in its entirety, which included "Sad Song", which was originally only released
on the UK vinyl version of the album and also on the Japanese CD edition. Other content
included live and TV performances of the albums twelve tracks, and the promo videos to "Supersonic",
"Shakermaker", "Live Forever", "Cigarettes & Alcohol" and "Rock 'n' Roll Star". A limited-edition
release in the UK and Ireland included a bonus DVD containing more live footage and anecdotes.
There was also an accompanying made-for-TV documentary, entitled There We Were, Now Here
We Are...: The Making Of Oasis. This was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK at 11:30pm on Friday,
3 September, three days before the release of the Definitely Maybe DVD. The programme
combined existing and unused interview footage from the DVD documentary and focused on the
origins of the band, and the four singles from Definitely Maybe. It also included a
very rare clip of "All Around the World" performed live at a rehearsal session in the Boardwalk
in 1992, five years before it was eventually recorded and released on Be Here Now. The
DVD received the NME award for Best Music DVD. The DVD earned Gold status in Australia.
Personnel Charts and certifications
References Harris, John. Britpop!: Cool Britannia and
the Spectacular Demise of English Rock. Da Capo Press, 2004. ISBN 0-306-81367-X
Notes